The Monroe (ALA.) Journal : reconstruction reporting in the rural deep south

Much of the history of the rural Southern press during the Reconstruction era has been overlooked. These small backwoods journals, and their editors, played important roles in shaping community attitudes and in turn being shaped. And the newspapers deserve a closer look

One such paper is the Monroe Journal, which was founded in June 1866 at Claiborne in southwest Alabama. Undeterred by the uncertainties of the early Reconstruction years, the paper's first editor, Z.D. Cottrell, set up shop in the steam boat town on the Alabama River. Under Cottrell and the editors who followed him, the Journal promoted candidates of the Democratic-Conservative Party, proclaimed the supremacy of the white race and damned Negro rule and Radical Republicans.

This study covered a period of four years, 1867, 1870, 1878 and 1879, during and shortly after the Reconstruction era, and was limited by the availability of newspapers from that time. Though constrained, the study clearly shows that the newspaper played an important role in Monroe County and the state in helping to wrest political power from the Republicans. Reconstruction politics aside, the Journal's editors also displayed varying degrees of skill in keeping their readers informed of news and opinion from other parts of the country and the world. Although the paper faced hard economic times, it was able to attract sufficient advertising to sustain publication through the long years.

As newspapers go, the Journal was tiny -- usually four pages -- circulated to less than 500 homes. Though it may have been a buzzing gnat, the paper never grew tired in its efforts to harry Reconstruction into an early grave.